I wrote a brief entry about my mother for a Mother’s Day contest on Giving Birth With Confidence answering the question, “How does your mother inspire and encourage you on your journey to (or through) motherhood?” My entry wasn’t one of the finalists, but I thought since I’d taken the time to write it, I might as well share it here! My mother is such an integral part of my life that I actually find it difficult to write about her. I have noticed the same thing in writing about my husband. Our lives are so entwined with each other that is is hard to imagine life without them, and consequently, hard to properly credit their roles in my life (a taking-for-granted thing perhaps in part, but also I think the intensity/depth/length of relationship makes it difficult to choose adequate words). Anyway, this is what I wrote and the photo I submitted with my entry:

Three generations!

My mother inspired me through her example-–she was a homebirthing, homeschooling, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, attachment-parenting, baby-wearing mama when this type of mothering path was virtually unknown. She was always respectful of my personality-–I was shy/reserved and she wasn’t, but she was very mindful of not pushing me outside of my own personal boundaries until I was ready to “blossom” on my own. Even while parenting my much younger siblings, she made daily space for me a young teenager to come sit on her bed every night and talk and talk and talk to her (about “nothing” probably!). She was always present. And, while she didn’t particularly like to play (that’s what my sister was for!), she made us SO many different little handmade toys 🙂 She also was/is a fabulous craftswoman and taught me a large number of handwork skills–-always nurturing of that creative spark!

She continues to encourage me by being available to me to babysit my boys (we live one mile apart), by being a listening ear and source of advice, and by never failing to think that I’m amazing, even when I don’t see it in myself.

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I also entered a previous written blog post into the Honoring Mothers contest at Science and Sensibility, where it was the first runner-up 🙂